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Charlotte's Mayor Anthony Foxx

Mayor Foxx’s political career began in 2005 with his election to the Charlotte City Council as a two-term, at large representative. During his four years of service as a councilman, he chaired the Transportation Committee and was a member of the Economic Development and Planning Committee. He was council’s representative to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Development Corporation and the Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Since 2009, Foxx has served as Deputy General Counsel at DesignLine Corporation. He previously served as an attorney at Hunton & Williams law firm, as a law clerk for the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, and as staff counsel to the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary.

A native of Charlotte, Foxx received his bachelor’s degree in history from Davidson College and earned his law degree from New York University School of Law as a Root-Tilden Scholar. He and his wife, Samara, have two children, Hillary and Zachary.

Mayor Foxx has articulated three goals for his tenure: (1) strengthening and diversifying the area economy; (2) improving quality of life; and (3) building stronger relationships between Charlotte, Raleigh and Washington. The early achievements of his administration demonstrate his effectiveness as a leader:

Strengthening and Diversifying the Economy

Entering office with a nearly 13 percent unemployment rate, Mayor Foxx set about quickly to respond to the economic downturn. He hosted town hall meetings with displaced workers and a job creation summit with employers. In March 2010, Foxx led a delegation of Charlotte leaders to the White House to share the feedback from those town hall meetings.

With the support of the Charlotte City Council, Foxx pushed through a series of initiatives aimed at helping small businesses, including the development of a Small Business Strategic Plan, a Small Business Task Force that has produced recommendations on how the City of Charlotte can increase its utilization of smaller firms, revisions to the City Small Business Loan Program, an Access to Capital Summit for small business owners and the development of a one-stop web resource for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

With collaboration between the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, the State of North Carolina, the Charlotte Regional Partnership and the Charlotte Chamber, Foxx has helped bring more than 8,400 jobs to the Charlotte area.

Improving Quality of Life

Recognizing the importance of trimming waste from city government, Mayor Foxx appointed an Efficient and Effective Government Task Force, led by former City Council Member Cyndee Patterson. This committee has been reviewing the city budget for nearly a year and is expected to produce recommendations to City Council in November 2010.

A strong advocate of public safety, Foxx has also welcomed more than 100 newly sworn Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers to the force. These officers are working to improve a crime rate that continues to approach historic lows.

Foxx has also championed improvements in public housing by working with the Charlotte City Council to implement the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. Since taking office, he has pushed for the creation of a new housing board that will, for the first time in the city’s history, bring City, County, faith, philanthropic and private sector leaders together to focus on leveraging scarce housing resources. He pushed City Council to increase the affordable housing bond on the November 2010 ballot from $10 million to $15 million. He is also working with other city council members to reconsider the city’s housing location policy.

Foxx has shown a penchant for engaging in other community issues. In 2009, as a City Council member, he led an effort to return $4.7 million in city funds to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System to keep effective educators working. In 2010, he pushed the City Council to support a county-wide effort to keep the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library System from closing several branches. As a result, instead of 16 branch closings, more than 20 of the 24 library locations are still open.

Improving Relationships Between Charlotte, Raleigh and Washington

Several significant infrastructure projects demonstrate Mayor Foxx’s effectiveness at working with leaders at the state and federal level. Since his election:

Governor Beverly Perdue signed paperwork to complete the I-485 loop by 2014, a year before construction was set to begin. Since that time, the state has also agreed to accelerate the widening of the southern leg of I-485 before 2015 as well.

Working with state and federal leaders, Foxx continues to work to address the employment recession though innovative efforts to lift small businesses, including expanding export opportunities for Charlotte’s small businesses and an innovative investment tax credit that, if approved, will push billions of private capital into U.S. small businesses.
Contact the Mayor:Email: mayor@charlottenc.gov
Address: 600 East 4th Street, 15th Floor
Phone: 704-336-2241

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The Honorable Anthony R. Foxx is the Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. He took the oath of office on December 7, 2009, becoming the city’s 48th and youngest mayor.